I may have mentioned a few times now on social media, that Phoebe brought us a giant bouquet of witch hazel. Yellow, fragrant in a pleasant, but medicinal way, bright among all the drab of January, she explained it's importance to her as it always blooms around her birthday. Which happens to be a few days before mine. An Aquarius flower then.

It's almost too beautiful, with it's odd cascading flowers, like fireworks exploding from its branches. I kept trying to catch it in all the pictures for a week.

Last year for my birthday, my friend Irene gave me her old sewing machine, in need of a little fixing, but otherwise awesome. I'd already been given a lighter-weight one, by another generous soul and so I waited until recently to get it in working order. Now I'm hemming and making pouches and skirts and just having a grand time with it.

I won't lie, these last couple of years I've made out like a bandit on my birthdays. I can't explain it other than I have good, great friends, and that maybe I too try to be generous on my part. Still, wearing this dress (with its neatly done hem), holding these flowers, people constantly pushing small packages in my hands all week long, I've felt a more than a little abashed, but I've also felt lucky.

I love to give and being on the receiving end of such kindness is a good reminder of how easily you can make someone happy. Whether it be loaf of bread, a long hug, or a bouquet of fragrant blooms, the only ones flowering just then. It's not the thing itself, it's what it represents. Kindness. Care. Love. Friendship.

Sometimes I feel like people are just being too nice, too kind, like I don't deserve it. But there's no such thing. There's no limit to love and kindness and sweetness. If it feels like too much, I probably better just try to spread a little more around.

Someone in my circle is clearly due for some flowers…and maybe a sewing machine.

Fireweed & Nettle is a hand-crafted, small batch apothecary, based on the practices of ancestral folk herbalism, self-care, plant-lore, magic, wild medicine, restorative organic gardening, and the medicine of place and spirit.

We wildcraft and grow all of our plant materials, except for a few lovely trades, and only use the best mediums for all of our medicine craft. These medicines are made with the seasons, the Moons, instincts, and ritual practices, in sustainable small batches with high quality mediums and ingredients. Once they sell out they may never appear in the same exact form again.